Sunday, 26 June 2016

National Insect Week took me out to the garden with a camera last night. Someone crept up on me and the focus shifted :-) It was a non-gardening practical job that took me outdoors this morning, nothing whatsoever to do with nature or insects.

Noisy garden visitors were heard the minute I opened my back door and my focus quickly shifted to taking photos. It’s fair to say, this happens a lot! Sound familiar?

Young fledgling Blue tits were seen begging parents for food,
using the feeder loop perch the parent didn’t need to fly very far.

Last night, moths were a no show on the cotoneaster blossom, this morning
it was quite literally a buzz with many bees feeding.

Last night I focused on watching white flowers for insects, this morning
a hoverfly was feeding on a new wild flower arrival for 2016 - Oxeye daisy

I’m loving the increasing planting of Astrantia and so are the insects.
Delicate bobbing movement of these flowers add so much to the garden too :-)

A long shot of the border shows a plethora of foliage and ground cover for
newly emerged froglets, many more flowers will open for insects too :-)

Pond side was the destination for my practical job this morning, it also shows
the power of editing & cropping photos. The rectangle reflection on the right is a towel hanging. A base pole for a rotary clothes line is discretely in the grass :-)

Practical job completed, insects caught my eye moving over the water.
Uploading photos revealed three backswimmers as well as the hoverfly.
It is often said that water is like a magnet to insects - it definitely is!

Water Lily 'Marliacea Chromatella', picked for it’s beautiful marbled leaves
and its medium size, hoverflies and other insects are attracted to it too.

The next practical job was breakfast. Where better a place to have it
than sitting on the Arbour behind the pond? Ignoring the hanging washing,
my focus went to the beauty of a simple flower reflecting in water.

The final, garden related, practical job planned for the day is building a new garden bench. It’s been painted to match the arbour and is ready and waiting to be assembled. It’s to be raining later in the afternoon so sounds like a good time to do it. I'll enjoy using this bench to watch insects and birds in another part of the garden. I've something else in mind for it too ;-)

If you’ve had garden plans for the weekend, I hope you’ve had the weather and time to get them done. Today’s the last day of the National Insect Week for 2016, if you've been taking part with any events, I hope you’ve had fun :-)

2 comments:

It has been so hot and dry here I haven't been out much. We just returned from vacation too. So much to put to order. i have so enjoyed your daily postings. I see they are about to come to an end. Bah... Cheers.

Hello again, Lisa, I can only imagine the temps and dry ground you have, ha-ha not usually a problem in Scotland. Hopefully you’ll get a break in the weather and get to catch up on order again :-) I’m delighted that you have enjoyed these postings. Thanks so much for keeping up with them populating your feed every day. I honestly can’t believe I’ve managed to keep going. Being truthful, the very late blogging nights have properly been a challenge on time – sometimes having to post only images with text to follow to get the post up before midnight! Yes, daily posts are about to come to an end but I’m thinking you’ll be hearing from me more regularly for a while yet :-)

OSPREY WEBCAM Loch of Lowes

GARDEN VISITS, WALK WITH ME...

GARDEN BIRD VIDEOS, COME SEE WHO CATCHES MY EYE...

I’ve noticed Sparrowhawks appear in the garden during wind and rain. To see my more regular visitors they are hiding behind the handsome chap above – just click on his photo :-)

BLUE TIT NESTBOX DIARY 2010

Six eggs, two attentive parents, hundreds of caterpillars, insects & live mealworms. Result… six chicks successfully fledge! Click on photo link above to follow their story through chat, photos & video.

WHERE IN THE WORLD AM I?

My small garden is in Perthshire, Scotland. I don’t have salmon in my pond, red deer in my borders, ospreys nesting in my acers or red squirrels at my peanut feeders! Nor do I have the world’s highest hedge, paths exciting enough for the serious cyclist and enough of a lawn for golf! However, Perthshire does plus many beautiful gardens too… follow the photo link above to see :-) Update Nov 2016 - Fantastic news, red squirrels now visiting feeders!